Meatball Séance (John Michael/PBH’s Free Fringe)

This one’s about a séance with meatballs. What do you mean, “what?” Right, ok. American John Michael wants to tell us about his boyfriends – indeed wants some of us to take the role of his boyfriends for the story. Specifically, he wishes he could have introduced them to his deceased mother and so, naturally, he goes about conducting a séance to reach her through the medium (as it were) of cooking her signature meatballs. It’s an odd recipe and won’t be to all tastes. Not the meatballs themselves (although, fennel? Bleh) but the mix of the comedic and the histrionic does jar at times. But it is a committed performance, with its share of laughs and its own very distinctive flavour.